One in Six East Germans Thinking Like National Socialists

Just two years ago 10.5 percent of people in the east could be classified as having a "cohesive far-right world view", the Friedrich Ebert Foundation said.

This has increased by around half since then to reach 15.8 percent now, the report said. During the same two years the situation in the west had largely remained stable, with the proportion of people thinking like national socialists. The economic decline in the east was a major reason for the "depressing news", Oliver Decker, one of the study's authors, told the mainstream press.

The most widespread attitude was "xenophobia", which affects 25.1 percent of the entire population, the study's authors wrote. Hostility towards foreigners could be seen in around 20 percent of western Germans - and in 39 percent of people in the east.

Those without work are most likely to be "xenophobic". East Germans aged between 14 and 30 are more likely to support the idea of national socialism, the study showed.